2024 bagrut eligibility, counting pupils who study in the town: Sderot 94.1%, Katzrin 91.8% and Dimona 90.0%, against Tel Aviv 80.9% and the national 76.6%.
Counting pupils who live in the town instead, the three still lead Tel Aviv: Sderot 89.8%, Katzrin 89.7% and Dimona 87.9%, against Tel Aviv 84.2%. Yeruham scores 92.2% on the first measure but 80.6% on the second, below Tel Aviv, so it is not counted here.
Family rent is NIS 3,450 in Sderot, NIS 3,600 in Katzrin and NIS 2,750 in Dimona, 34% to 50% below the national average. All three carry an income tax credit (Sderot 20%, Dimona 18%, Katzrin 10%). Olim first registered there in 2023 to 2025: Sderot 94, Dimona 56 and Katzrin fewer than 100.
What this does not show
A small town's rate can swing with one year's cohort, and it is an authority-wide average across school streams. Eligibility is a pass rate, not a quality measure: it does not show how many pupils took 5-unit maths or English. The lead holds with special education excluded (Sderot 94.5%, Katzrin 92.5%, Dimona 90.4%, Tel Aviv 85.3%). These towns have few local jobs and long commutes: Katzrin has no station and Dimona's train has only 2 morning departures. Sderot borders Gaza. Low olim numbers may reflect work and security, which this data does not measure.
What to do
If your income does not depend on a daily commute, visit these towns' schools in person, since a town-wide rate cannot tell you about a specific school.
Method
Both bagrut measures come from the same Shkifut record for each authority (fetch_shkifut.py and build_bagrut.py), so each comparison is like for like. Rent from the nadlan.gov.il settlement files; olim counts from the Ministry record-level file (agg.py).
Sources
- [1]Ministry of Education, Shkifut: Sderot, education picture 2024. Bagrut eligibility, school year 2024; national 76.6%Accessed 15 October 2026
- [2]Ministry of Education, Shkifut: Katzrin, education picture 2024. Bagrut eligibility, school year 2024; national 76.6%Accessed 15 October 2026
- [3]Ministry of Education, Shkifut: Dimona, education picture 2024. Bagrut eligibility, school year 2024; national 76.6%Accessed 15 October 2026
- [4]Ministry of Education, Shkifut: Tel Aviv-Yafo, education picture 2024. Bagrut eligibility, school year 2024; national 76.6%Accessed 15 October 2026
- [5]Ministry of Education, Shkifut: Yeruham, education picture 2024. Bagrut eligibility, school year 2024; national 76.6%Accessed 15 October 2026
- [6]Ministry of Construction and Housing, nadlan.gov.il rent file: Dimona (indicative). Median of 4 quarters to Jun 2026, 4 rooms; undocumented and not CBSAccessed 15 October 2026
- [7]Ministry of Construction and Housing, nadlan.gov.il rent file: Sderot (indicative). Median of 4 quarters to Jun 2026, 4 rooms; undocumented and not CBSAccessed 15 October 2026
- [8]Ministry of Construction and Housing, nadlan.gov.il rent file: Katzrin (indicative). Median of 4 quarters to Jun 2026, 4 rooms; undocumented and not CBSAccessed 15 October 2026
- [9]Israel Tax Authority, salary withholding booklet from January 2026 (updated April 2026), chapter H. Section 11 localities with rate and income ceiling. Read from a copy posted by a tax firm: the gov.il path for the 2026 file returned 404Accessed 15 October 2026
- [10]Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, new immigrants by year: record-level open file (data.gov.il). One row per oleh, first absorbing locality and country of origin; years 2015 to 2025; 2025 file modified 23 February 2026. Machine-readable record: https://data.gov.il/api/3/action/package_show?id=new-olim-by-yearsAccessed 15 October 2026